"Yellowstone" has become a huge hit for the Paramount Network, with more than 14 million viewers tuning in for the Season 4 premiere. Ratings-wise, Variety says it's "the #1 series of 2021 across all television— which includes broadcast, cable, and premium networks," and the spin-off "1883" is also drawing a huge number of viewers. A big draw for "Yellowstone" fans is firecracker Beth Dutton and her on-again, off-again relationship with Rip Wheeler, her father's ranch foreman. Their romance is complicated, to say the least, but they clearly have a powerful connection. Here are the Beth and Rip details that "Yellowstone" fans totally missed.
Category
✨
PeopleTranscript
00:00What would happen to Beth Dutton if she lost the love of Rip Wheeler?
00:04Will Beth ever let him in about her deepest, darkest secret?
00:08These are the Beth and Rip details that Yellowstone fans totally missed.
00:13While Beth Dutton and Rip Wheeler have had an incredible on-screen romance, the fact
00:18stands that these two definitely had a huge imbalance in terms of who had more power early
00:23on in the relationship.
00:25As many Yellowstone fans know, the pair couldn't be from more contrasting backgrounds.
00:30As a child, Rip witnessed the deaths of both his mother and his brother at the hands of
00:34his father, and then killed his father himself, which is what landed him at the ranch owned
00:39by Beth's father in the first place.
00:42The fifth episode of Season 2, Touching Your Enemy, really takes viewers deeper into the
00:47power dynamic between Beth and Rip.
00:49As the daughter of the man who employs Rip, Beth is able to approach her future love interest
00:54with a degree of control that we don't always see from women on-screen.
00:58When Beth outright tells Rip to kiss her, he wants to, but...
01:02"...I don't know how."
01:11The Season 1 episode, Kill the Messenger, features an evening shared by Beth and Rip
01:16that is pretty unusual.
01:17The pair are supposedly on their first date, sitting in the back of Rip's truck, drinking
01:22whiskey, and watching a pack of wolves devour a deer.
01:25That's when Beth says,
01:26"...I've done some morbid s—t on a first date.
01:30This takes the cake, Rip."
01:32"...It's far from a first date."
01:34The implication is crystal clear.
01:37This might be the first time the two have spent any real time together in a long while,
01:41but their history runs much deeper than a night hanging out in a car.
01:46Despite their deeply passionate romance, Beth and Rip's relationship seems doomed from Beth's
01:52perspective.
01:53As viewers learn over time, she has a secret that she's worried will undo any progress
01:57she and Rip make together.
01:59In Going Back to Cali, Beth finally confesses that secret to Rip.
02:03While explaining why she always comes and goes, constantly running toward and away from
02:08Rip, Beth admits,
02:09"...You know why I always run away?
02:10Because there's only so much I can give you, Rip."
02:18Beth reveals to Rip that she can't have children, and that's why she's been so flighty over
02:23the years.
02:24Of course, Rip assures Beth that if his life is meant to only be lived with her, that is
02:28more than enough of a life for him.
02:31Not being able to have biological children with Rip Wheeler is a huge part of Beth's
02:36character arc on Yellowstone.
02:38In a lot of ways, it's not really a surprise that the pair found themselves functioning
02:42as foster parents to a teenage boy.
02:44And while it's true that neither of them handle their new responsibility particularly well,
02:49in a strange, only-Beth-and-Rip kind of way, the threesome does resemble something of a
02:54family.
02:55At the beginning of Season 4, Beth is introduced to a teenage boy named Carter, whose dad is
03:00dying.
03:01Beth decides to take Carter in, but Rip isn't sure that he's ready for the responsibility
03:05of having a teenager around.
03:08Rip might not have the best reaction when it's time to welcome Carter, but through conversation
03:12with Beth, he begins to see the potential in the situation.
03:16By acting like parents, they're able to grow closer together as a family.
03:21While Beth is open with Rip about not being able to have children, there's a larger part
03:25of the story that she leaves out for years.
03:28As a teen, she got pregnant with his child, and ended up terminating the pregnancy.
03:33Actress Kelly Riley explained to TVLine that carrying this secret puts Beth in an unenviable
03:39spot.
03:40She's worried that Rip will find out one way or another, but she's scared that she might
03:44lose him if he learns what happened.
03:46As Riley told TVLine,
03:47"...so she's thinking a day might come when he might find out, or she will tell him.
03:52One would say she should tell him."
03:55The idea that Beth Dutton and Rip Wheeler are soulmates probably isn't anything new
03:59to most fans of Yellowstone, but what binds these two together is pure, unconditional
04:05love.
04:06Kelly Howser explained to Deadline that Rip Wheeler has been a goner for Beth since he
04:10was a teenager.
04:11As he put it,
04:12"...as far as Rip's concerned, that was his first and only love from when he was 15 years
04:17old."
04:18Kelly Riley continued by explaining that Rip gives Beth something she can't find anywhere
04:22else.
04:23Beth and Rip are soulmates, and have been since they met.
04:26They are so tough and hard-headed, and the capacity of violence is in them both.
04:31But they provide a safe haven for quiet, peace, and love, and she doesn't have that with
04:35anyone else in the show.
04:38Even though they're characters in a TV show, the love that Beth Dutton and Rip Wheeler
04:42have for one another is inspiring to fans of the show all around the world.
04:47However, the way Beth has literally run away from and back to Rip over and over again could
04:53make some people question whether she's really all in or not.
04:56As Kelly Riley sees it, the character she plays is so far in that if something were
05:00to happen to Rip, it would probably spell the end of Beth as well.
05:04Despite how hard Beth can be, Riley told Parade that Rip and Beth's father are the two most
05:09important people in the world to her.
05:12As she said,
05:13"...I think the worst thing that could happen to Beth is to either lose her father or Rip.
05:17She's very generous with people she loves."